Provisions of Law not Complied With . 103 
time of such death, the name of the husband or wife; and shall 
within thirty days after such death, return the same facts in the 
form of a certificate, duly dated and signed by him, to the reg¬ 
ister of deeds of the county in which such death shall have 
occurred. ” 
Section 1028 provides that: “Every physician or surgeon, 
or other professional person, under whose care a birth shall take 
place, or who shall be present professionally at any death, who 
shall neglect to make and return any certificate required to be 
made by sections 1023 and 1024, shall for every such neglect 
forfeit not less than $50.00 nor more than $100.00.” 
The law also provides that every physician, surgeon or other 
professional person, who shall comply with the provisions of 
these two sections of law, shall receive for each certificate re¬ 
turned to the register of deeds, and certified to as provided by 
said sections, the sum of fifteen cents, to be audited and paid 
out of the treasury on an itemized account, verified by his oath, 
and that the register of deeds shall keep a carefully prepared 
copy of these records in books kept in his office, and also shall 
transmit a copy of the same annually to the Secretary of State. 
This law does not apply to the City of Milwaukee. 
Another section of law provides that the Secretary of the 
State Board of Health “shall be Superintendent of Vital Sta¬ 
tistics, and under the direction of the Secretary of State collect 
the statistics of marriages, births and deaths, and prepare and 
publish the report thereof required by law. ” 
There are at present seventy counties in the State of Wis¬ 
consin, and for the purpose of ascertaining to what extent these 
laws are complied with, I have recently sent to the register of 
deeds of each county the following list of questions: 
1st. Is the law requiring the report of births and deaths generally ob¬ 
served in your county ; if not, to what extent ? 
2nd. Are all certificates of death signed by a physician or coroner ? 
3rd. Are certificates of births signed by physicians or midwives ? 
4th. Is a burial permit required in any part of your county to be filed 
with any local authority before the interment of a body ? 
5th. Do you make complete annual returns of births and deaths to 
the Secretary of State ? 
